Library of Congress. Copyright Office

“ However, a separate contribution to a collective work may bear its own notice of copyright, and in some cases, it may be advantageous to utilize the separate notice. As a practical matter, a separate notice will inform the public of the identity of the owner of the contribution. For works first published before March 1, 1989, there may be additional reasons to use a separate notice. If the owner of the collective work is not the same as the owner of an individual contribution that does not bear its own notice, the contribution is considered to bear an erroneous notice. ”

“ The name in the notice (sometimes in combination with the other statements on the copy, records, disk, tape, container, or label) often gives persons wishing to use the work the information needed to identify the owner from whom licenses or permission can be sought. In other cases, the name provides a starting point for a search in the Copyright Office records or catalogs, as explained at the beginning of this circular.
In the case of works published before 1978, copyright registration is made in the name of the individual person or the entity identified as the copyright owner in the notice. ”

“ There are several ways to investigate whether a work is under copyright protection and, if so, the facts of the copyright. These are the main ones:
1. Examine a copy of the work for such elements as a copyright notice, place and date of publication, author and publisher. If the work is a sound recording, examine the disk, tape cartridge, or cassette in which the recorded sound is fixed, or the album cover, sleeve, or container in which the recording is sold. ”

“ TERMINATION OF GRANTS For works already under statutory copyright on January 1, 1978, the law also contains special provisions allowing the termination of any grant of rights made by an author and covering any part of the period (usually 39 years) that has now been added to the end of the renewal copyright. This right to reclaim ownership of all or any part of the extended term is optional. It can be exercised only by certain persons (the author, or specified heirs of the author) , and it must be exercised in accordance with prescribed conditions and within strict time limits. ”

“ YEAR-END EXPIRATION OF COPYRIGHTTERMS The law provides that all terms of copyright will run through the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire. This affects the duration of all copyrights, including those subsisting in either their first or second term in January 1, 1978. For works eligible for renewal registration, the renewal filing period begins on December 31st of the 27th year of the copyright term and ends on December 31st of the 28th year of the copyright term. ”

“ Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law. ”

“ Contracting Parties shall, when applying the Berne Convention, confine any limitations of or exceptions to rights provided for therein to certain special cases that do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author. ”

“ The Office must examine and record that notice, issue an acknowledgement, create a catalog entry that includes among other things all the titles, publish the information in the Federal Register, and maintain the online catalog of the information. The URAA gives the Office authority to fix reasonable fees based on these costs.
The Office realizes that requiring a filing on each work of an author will be onerous and we will permit multiple works meeting the criteria described in our regulations to be filed on one notice for a lesser fee. ”

“ In recognition of the difficulty some applicants may have in submitting a deposit of an older work ``as first published,'' the Office has established special deposit regulations for URAA restored works. These regulations permit a deposit of other than the first published edition of the work, if absolutely necessary; applicants should keep in mind, however, that the deposit serves as a crucial part of the public record, and it is their interest to make a complete deposit. ”

“ Notices of Intent to Enforce may cover multiple works provided that each work is identified by title, all the works are by the same author, all the works are owned by the identified copyright owner or owner of an exclusive right, and the rights owned by the party on whose behalf the Notice of Intent is filed are the same. ”

“ The procedures developed for the registration of copyright claims for restored works must both balance the needs of applicants for copyright registration, reliance parties, the public, and the Copyright Office and also establish a system that will be feasible administratively and elicit necessary information. ”

“ PHONORECORDS OF SOUND RECORDINGS The copyright notice for phonorecords embodying a sound recording is different from that for other works. Sound recordings are defined as "works that result from the fixation of a series of musical, spoken or other sounds, but not including the sounds accompanying a motion picture or other audiovisual work." Copyright in a sound recording protects the particular series of sounds fixed in the recording against unauthorized reproduction, revision, and distribution. ”

“ As discussed earlier, procedures permitting the copyright registration of restored works are not formalities in violation of the Berne Convention. Registration is entirely voluntary for Berne works since copyright registration of restored works is not a prerequisite for the filing of a copyright infringement action. Registration of a claim in a work involves significant additional work and by law requires a fee. ”

“ The manufacturing provisions of the copyright act expired on July 1, 1986, and are no longer a part of the copyright law. The transitional and supplementary provisions of the act provide that for any work in which ad interim copyright was subsisting or capable of being secured on December 31, 1977, copyright protection would be extended for a term compatible with the other works in which copyright was subsisting on the effective date of the new act. ”

“ She asserted it should be sufficient to file one NIE for all of the titles of one author. Ms. Shaughnessy illustrated her point by noting that she will be filing for 73 authors, but there will be hundreds of titles involved. Comment 3. Ms. Lorente asserted that the NIE is a formality in violation of at least the spirit of Berne and that because reliance parties are free to continue to exploit restored works in the United States unless a NIE is filed, an author cannot exercise his or her rights in the restored work automatically. ”

“ For example, if an author dies before the 28th year of the original term and a statutory renewal claimant registers a renewal within the 28th year, that claimant can terminate an assignment made by the deceased author authorizing the exploitation of a derivative work. If a renewal is not made during the 28th year, a derivative work created during the first term of copyright under a prior grant can continue to be used according to the terms of the grant. ”

“ Group registration. Copyright claims in more than one restored work may be registered as a group in the following circumstances:
(i) Single series title. Works published under a single series title in multiple episodes, installments, or issues during the same calendar year may be registered as a group, provided the owner of U.S. rights is the same for all episodes, installments, or issues. The Form GATT should be used and the number of episodes or installments should be indicated in the title line. The filing fee for registering a group of such works is $20. ”

“ A single copyright notice applicable to the collective work as a whole serves to indicate protection for all the contributions in the collective work, except for advertisements, regardless of the ownership of copyright in the individual contributions and whether they have been published previously. ”

“ The Copyright Office again emphasizes that the restoration of copyright in certain foreign works considered in the public domain in the United States creates a conflict between reliance parties' and copyright owners' legitimate concerns. Reliance parties have invested capital and labor in the lawful exploitation of public domain property ”

“ The copyright notice should be placed on copies or phonorecords in such a way that it gives reasonable notice of the claim of copyright. The notice should be permanently legible to an ordinary user of the work under normal conditions of use and should not be concealed from view upon reasonable examination. The Copyright Office has issued regulations, summarized below, concerning the position of the notice and methods of affixation (37 C.F.R., Part 201) . ”

“ Searches of the Copyright Office catalogs and records are useful in helping to determine the copyright status of a work, but they cannot be regarded as conclusive in all cases. The complete absence of any information about a work in the Office records does not mean that the work is unprotected. ”

“ Drafts must be redeemable without service or exchange fee through a U.S. institution, must be payable in U.S. dollars, and must be imprinted with American Banking Association routing numbers.
If a check received in payment of the filing fee is returned to the Copyright Office as uncollectible, the Copyright Office will cancel the registration and will notify the applicant. The fee for processing a renewal claim is nonrefundable, whether or not renewal registration is ultimately made. ”

“ Right of Rental
(1) Authors of: (i) computer programs; (ii) cinematographic works; and (iii) works embodied in phonograms as determined in the national law of Contracting Parties,
shall enjoy the exclusive right of authorizing commercial rental to the public of the originals or copies of their works.
(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply: (i) in the case of computer programs where the program itself is not the essential object of the rental ”

“ The term of copyright in works copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977, is now 95 years. There is no requirement to register a renewal in order to extend the original 28- year copyright term to the full term of 95 years. Although the renewal term is secured automatically, the Copyright Office does not issue a renewal certificate for these works unless a renewal application and fee are received and registered in the Copyright Office. ”

“ A number of libraries throughout the United States maintain copies of the
Catalog, and this may provide a good starting point if you wish to make a
search yourself. There are some cases, however, in which a search of the
Catalog alone will not be sufficient to provide the needed information.
For example:
+ Because the Catalog does not include entries for assignments or other recorded documents, it cannot be used for searches involving the ownership of rights. ”

“ A renewal registration is effective on the date the Copyright Office receives all the required renewal elements in acceptable form, regardless of how long it then takes to process the application and mail the certificate of registration. ”

“ The Copyright Office maintains a system of Deposit Accounts for the convenience of those who frequently use its services. The system allows an individual or firm to establish a Deposit Account in the Copyright Office and to make advance deposits into that account. Deposit Account holders can charge copyright fees against the balance in their accounts instead of sending separate remittances with each request for service. ”

“ Based on those comments, the Office is requesting more information from the filer of a NIE than required under the URAA. As provided in the statute, this additional information will not affect the validity of the notice. Additional information such as the identity of the author is essential, however, for efficient and timely identification of a specific work where enforcement of copyright is sought. The additional information will also facilitate the licensing of uses of restored works. ”